State AG investigating Campaign for One New York in connection to Rivington sale

New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman launched a probe into Mayor Bill de Blasio’s defunct Campaign for One New York in connection to the controversial sale of the Rivington House to a trio of developers.

The Campaign Finance Board cleared de Blasio and the nonprofit of wrongdoing on July 6, but on the same day, Schneiderman issued a subpoena seeking information on the group, the New York Post reported. The mayor started the fundraising entity in 2014, and developers were among the fund’s biggest donors. While the campaign finance board found that the fund didn’t violate its rules, it criticized the mayor’s handling of the nonprofit and said it raised serious policy questions.

Last week, the city’s Department of Investigation published a report that found that City Hall knew about the $116 million sale of 45 Rivington Street on the Lower East Side. In February 2015, the Allure Group paid VillageCare $28 million for the building. Nine months later, the city removed the deed restrictions and Allure subsequently sold the building for $116 million to developers including Slate Property Group , Adam America Real Estate and China Vanke.

The report also revealed an email from a Slate representative warning employees of the firm to keep quiet about the deal until the deed restrictions had been removed.

The mayor had said he was not aware that the deed restriction on the property had been lifted, paving the way for luxury condos. The DOI, however, found that de Blasio either “knew or should have known.”

“We are fully confident that the campaign has conducted itself legally and appropriately at all times,” a spokesperson for Campaign for One New York told the Post. [NYP] — Kathryn Brenzel